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Language is a systematized form of communication that most commonly occurs in spoken, written, signed/gestural, and thought (telepathic) forms, although other methods of communication have been observed in the known galaxy. The use of language is one of the defining features of sentience; though non-sentient species may exhibit some of the properties of language in their communications, the possession of all of these characteristics is the domain of sentients.

General features of natural language

Languages are set apart from random signals and non-sentient communication in that set relationships between the various components are determined by a systematized grammar, a set of rules by which that language operates. Even in the most extreme examples of telepathic language (i.e. that of the Cairn), which are otherwise devoid of a recognizable set of symbols, the images, emotions, and concepts conveyed are bound together by the logic of the situations depicted such that the meaning intended by one interlocutor can be accurately deduced by the other.

The symbols used in languages--aside, perhaps, for the direct images used by the Cairn language and components of certain other telepathic forms of communications--are arbitrary in nature. That is to say that while a symbol (a morpheme or word, for instance) may be assigned one meaning in one language, it need not carry that meaning in another language. For instance, the name "Bena" (daughter of FerengiGrand NagusRom and his Bajoran wife Leeta) means "joy" in Bajoran, but "underflooring" in Ferengi. (DS9novel: Ferenginar: Satisfaction is Not Guaranteed)

Comparative evolution of natural language

Languages do not evolve at the same rate or in the same sequence for every species. It is most common for species to develop a spoken or signed language first, but in at least one known case--that of the Leyrons, who developed a written language before either of the former. (TNGepisode: "Loud as a Whisper")

It is also possible for a species undergoing evolutionary transition to lose the capacity for a certain mode of communication during the process due to preference for another more advantageous one. The most notable example is the Cairn loss of vocal speech capabilities after they evolved an image-based telepathic language. (TNGepisode: "Dark Page")

In some cases, a particular species may simply never have evolved a particular form of communication. Two known examples of humanoid species not developing the capacity for speech--both Delta Quadrant races--are that of Fantome's race encountered by the USS Voyager in the Void, and the Ventu, native to the planet Ledos. (VOYepisode: "The Void", VOYepisode: "Natural Law") The Efrosians are known to have never developed written language, and continue to use a music-based archival system even though since their first contact with the Federation, they have been thoroughly exposed to the concept. (TTNnovel: Taking Wing)

In other cases, a form of communication may be observed in a primitive state, such as the spoken language of the Pakleds, who became a spacefaring race by stealing the technology of other species. (TNGepisode: "Samaritan Snare").

Political aspects of language

United Federation of Planets

On many worlds with unified governments, one language tends to dominate that society and may become known as the language of that people, or even overall organization as in the case of Federation Standard, an apparent descendant of the English language. (In certain quarters, Federation Standard has also been referred to as Anglish. [TOSnovel: The Romulan Way]) In the case of Federation Standard, no evidence exists to suggest that any other languages have been suppressed, as the case of Ensign Muñiz, who reverted to his native Spanish as he neared his death, illustrates (DS9episode: "The Ship"). Still, there are those living on United Earth who take a rather less favorable view upon other languages. Lieutenant CommanderData once attempted to suggest that Jean-Luc Picard's native French language had become obsolete following the rise of Federation Standard, a suggestion that incurred the captain's ire. (TNGepisode: "Code of Honor") This points to an ongoing debate regarding the preservation and use of minority languages in the modern Federation.

There has been evidence of an attempt to devise an intergalactic auxiliary language to avoid giving preference to the Earth language of Federation Standard. Ironically, this language was termed Esperanta after a similar attempt native to Earth itself. While Captain James Kirk demonstrated familiarity with this auxiliary language on one occasion, the project appears to have largely failed after the 23rd century, as no evidence has appeared of it since. (TOScomic: "Invasion of the City Builders")

One known relative of Federation Standard is the Neyel language, which similarly to Federation Standard, appears to be descended from English. It is possible, however, that Neyel may be more appropriately classed as a dialect of English from a linguistic standpoint, given that the Universal Translator initially refused to render a translation on grounds of the marked similarities to Federation Standard. (TLEnovel: The Sundered)

Federation member worlds

At this time, there is ample evidence that just as Earth has retained non-official languages, so too have some of the Federation's member worlds. Long-standing Federation member Andor is known to have at least three prominent languages in active use: Greater Andorian, Lesser Andorian, and Graalen.

Vulcan and Bajor are also known to continue the active use of at least one non-Federation Standard language. However, following the admission of Bajor into the Federation, bilingual signage has begun to appear on Bajor in both the Bajoran language and Federation Standard, suggesting that bilingualism may become the norm on Federation member worlds. (DS9novel: Bajor: Fragments and Omens)

Klingon Empire

In the case of the Klingon Empire, multiple "dialects" of the Klingon language are known to exist, and vary along regional and house lines. Whether these "dialects" are variants upon the same language or in fact separate languages merely labeled as dialects for political reasons (much as has been done in the case of the Earth language of Chinese) is unknown. Major dialects observed include the Klingonaase prominent in the 23rd century and the TlhIngan Hol observed in later periods. Although Klingonaase has largely fallen out of favor these days, certain expressions and customs have cropped up again in recent times, particularly the practice of hailing a returning hero with the salutation, "Kai [name]!"

Romulan Empire

The Romulan Empire, an offshoot of the Vulcan race, is notable for having deliberately designed a language to oppose their former tongue as thoroughly as possible. Even the new language's phonology (sound set) was chosen with the intent of destroying any possible resemblance to Vulcan: where the former preferred gutturals and strong consonants, Rihannsu prefers long vowel clusters and soft consonants. Rihannsu, as both the people and the language are known, means "The Declared," and this very act was a declaration of their break with their Vulcan past.

Ferengi Alliance

The Ferengi Alliance maintains at least two languages in active use: the Ferengi language observed when a Ferengi ship crashed in Roswell, Earth, in the year 1949, and a Trading Tongue. Reasons for the use of a separate commercial language are unknown, though they could include simplifying language for the easier comprehension of species without Universal Translators--or allowing the Ferengi language to be reserved under such circumstances for negotiators to confer secretly amongst themselves...or both at the same time. Currently it has yet to be ascertained which if any of these reasons are valid.

The role of the Universal Translator

Greatly facilitating galactic exploration and communication was the Universal Translator, a device capable of rendering speech in other languages into the native language of the user. This technology originated in the 22nd century, its use pioneered on the first Enterprise, though at that time (and continuing into the 23rd century), it was standard practice on Starfleet vessels to maintain an expert linguist on the bridge given the technology's imperfections.

Non-natural languages

Non-natural languages include programming languages, logical languages, and any other intentionally-designed language deliberately created by sentient races. One of the most notable examples of a non-natural language is Linguacode, devised by Hoshi Sato as a sort of "universal languages" for cases when the experimental Universal Translator proved ineffective. (ENTepisode: "In a Mirror, Darkly, Part II") The Romulans have also been observed to have their own constructed language operating on a similar premise. (TNGepisode: "Tin Man")

Esperanta apparently developed with a similar intent, although created as a spoken language rather than (what appears to be) a form of machine code like Linguacode.

In its nascent stages, Rihannsu was a constructed language devised by Romulan exiles on their flight from Vulcan with the intent of bearing as little resemblance to the Vulcan language as possible.

Borg alphanumeric code may represent either another constructed language or a straight programming language.

From Lostpedia

"Languages" redirects here. If you are looking for other languages of Lostpedia, please see Lostpedia:Languages.

Every character on Lost speaks some form or variant of a language. The predominant language spoken on the original broadcasts of the show is American English, though variants of this language, as well as entirely different languages are used, often with English subtitles. Every main character on the show speaks at least some English. Several characters can speak up to four other languages on the show besides English (Naomi, Mikhail and Danielle).

Ben primarily speaks English. However, he was also shown to speak Turkish when he was confronted by two Bedouins, and also speaks Arabic. ("The Shape of Things to Come") It is possible that Ben can speak fluent Latin, as we know from Juliet that all Others must speak this language. ("Jughead")

Rousseau was first heard speaking French over a distress signal("Pilot, Part 2"), and it is presumed to be her native language. She was also shown to know several other languages when questioning Sayid. ("Solitary") However, she also speaks English fluently, and uses it to communicate with the other survivors regularly.

Dogen is an Other in a position of authority at the Temple who speaks Japanese, which is translated to English by Lennon. While he can speak English, he does not like the way it "tastes on [his] tongue."

Though he generally uses English, even while talking with other Nigerians, Eko also speaks another of Nigeria's major languages. This is most likely Yoruba, as "Eko" and his brother's name "Yemi" are both names from traditional Yoruba. ("The 23rd Psalm")

Though he prominently speaks English, Hurley has also been shown to know Spanish, as he is the original owner of the Spanish comic book, and understands what Naomi says when she arrives on the Island. ("The Brig") He is also born to a Hispanic family living in the US.

Though Jacob speaks English as his primary language, he fluently spoke Russian while visiting Ilana in the hospital and spoke Korean to Sun and Jin at their wedding, even being commented by Jin that he speaks excellent Korean. He also has the ability to (at the very least) read and write Greek as evidenced by his work on the tapestry in his quarters in the statue.("The Incident, Parts 1 & 2")

Jin's primary language was Korean, as he had grown up and lived in Korea all his life, never having the need to speak another language. This caused a language barrier between him and other English speakers on the island. After his wife revealed that she could speak English ("...In Translation"), he was initially enraged, but finally accepted the fact, and allowed her to begin to teach him. ("Exodus, Part 2") His ability to speak English quickly developed, and by three years later, he was a fluent speaker. ("LaFleur")

Mikhail generally speaks English, and uses this to communicate which his fellow Others and the survivors. However, he has also used Russian to speak with Beatrice Klugh so that the survivors would not understand their exchange. ("Enter 77") He also was able to translate Naomi's Portuguese, though he intentionally did so incorrectly. ("D.O.C.") Mikhail is Ukrainian, so it is possible that he also knows Ukrainian.("Enter 77") It is very possible that Mikhail can also speak Latin, as all Others should know this language. ("Jughead")

Nadia's native language is presumably Arabic, as she was shown living in Iraq and speaking the language. ("Solitary") However, she was also seen in America on multiple occasions, speaking English fluently.

Naomi's primary language is English, and she uses it to communicate with the survivors. However, she also seen speaking in several different languages, such as Portuguese, Chinese, and Spanish. ("D.O.C.")

Richard primarily speaks English, though he has shown that he speaks Latin, possibly as it is the Others' secret language, when replying to Ilana's question "What lies in the shadow of the Statue?". ("The Incident, Parts 1 & 2")

Sayid's native language is presumably Arabic, as he was shown living in Iraq and speaking the language. ("Solitary") However, he also speaks perfect English, and uses this primarily on the island. He also speaks a little German as seen as his meeting with Elsa in a cafe. ("The Economist") He can also speak Spanish as he spoke it while working on the Build our Planet project in Santo Domingo. ("The Life and Death of Jeremy Bentham")

Sun's native language is Korean. Throughout most of her life she spoke no other language. However, she soon started learning English under the tutelage of Jae Lee("The Whole Truth"), and eventually became very fluent. However, she kept this a secret from Jin. Several weeks after crashing on the island, Sun revealed to everyone the fact that she spoke English ("...In Translation"), and then began using it almost exclusively, except with Jin, whom she began teaching English after his anger for her betrayal had subsided. ("Exodus, Part 2")

Accents

Many characters have distinctive accents when speaking English, showing their countries of origin. Charlie speaks with an English accent, and is able to tell that Naomi hails from Manchester as well, judging from her Northern accent. ("Greatest Hits") Michael is able to discern this fact about Naomi as well, presumably judging from his time spent with Charlie. ("Meet Kevin Johnson") Widmore and some members of the Hostiles also use British accent while speaking. ("The Lie") ("Jughead") Desmond uses a clear Scottish accent, an accent also used by many of his flashback characters. Desmond's ex-fiancee Ruth speaks with a slight Irish accent.

Sawyer speaks English with a distinctive Southern accent (having hailed from Alabama). This is easily discernable by his fellow survivors, and sometimes draws insults from other survivors ("redneck man", "hillbilly").

Several characters speak English with a clear Australian accent. Claire is perhaps the most obvious of these, along with her family and most of her flashback characters, including Carole Littleton, Richard Malkin, and Lindsey. Captain Gault and Hendricks from the Kahana also speak with an Australian accent. Most Australian characters feature a New South Wales variation of Australian accents.

Several other characters speak with accents on the show. Jin and Sun speak English with a slight Korean accent, while Danielle Rousseau, as well as Robert and Montand, speak English with a French accent. Eko speaks with a deep, Nigerian timbre, and his brother Yemi speaks English similarly. Frank Lapidus speaks with a Yankee accent. Most other characters speak English with an American accent.

Language barriers

Language barriers have caused some issues between characters of the show, because they are unable to understand one another. The most notable victim of a language barrier was Jin, because he was unable to speak English while his fellow castaways were. Sun had pretended to be unable to speak English, but was later revealed to be able to. ("...In Translation") Jin later began overcoming this barrier with the help of Sun. ("Exodus, Part 2") By three years later, Jin was perfectly fluent in English. ("LaFleur")

Another, more minor, language barrier existed between Ben and the Bedouins after he turned the frozen wheel and ended up in the Sahara desert. While being held at gunpoint, Ben tried to speak English with the two of them, and they appeared to not understand. Ben then began speaking Turkish, asking them wether they knew Turkish (tr: Türkçe biliyor musunuz?). After incapacitating both of them, Ben learned that one did speak at least partial English (Surrender!). He sarcastically noted this, and then knocked out the Bedouin with the butt of his gun. ("The Shape of Things to Come")

Hiding a language

Another minor recurring theme is a character keeping a language secret. The most notable occurrence was Sun's knowledge of English. She kept this a secret from her husband and the other survivors. She couldn't live with the same language barrier her husband lived with and finally opened up to Michael, whilst trying to defend her husband.("House of the Rising Sun") After a short period, she unwillingly had to admit the truth to Kate, after it became clear she had understood a comment by Kate in English.("Hearts and Minds")
Her final act was revealing it to everybody at the beach, in order to keep her husband and Michael from fighting. ("...In Translation")Jin at first thought of this as a betrayal, but eventually accepted it as an advantage over his barrier. He used her as translator and as an English teacher.

Secret languages

The Others' have been shown to use multiple secret languages, most notably Latin. The first mentioning of this was when Cunningham and Jones were held hostages by Locke, Sawyer and Juliet, who used to communicate so their captors won't understand them, though they were understood Juliet, who being a former Other spoke the language and successfully revealed them as Others. Juliet later explained that the reason the Others speak Latin is because they consider it "the language of the enlightened". ("Jughead")Richard Alpert was also shown to speak it, when answering to Ilana's question "What lies in the shadow of the Statue?". ("The Incident, Parts 1 & 2")
Beside Latin, the Others have also used Russian to communicate among themselves. It was used by Beatrice Klugh and Mikhail Bakunin when they were captured by Sayid, Locke and Kate at the Flame, Bea used it to ask Mikhail to shoot her, something that he hesitantly does. ("Enter 77")Dogan used Japanese to speak with Lennon even though he spoke and understood English perfectly. Though he claims that he doesn't speak it because he doesn't like the language, his usage of Japanese had the same role as the Others' previous uses of Latin and Russian, as only he and Lennon understood what Dogan said. ("LA X, Parts 1 & 2")

Other examples include Charlotte's above-mentioned French translator, though as it was confirmed that Charlotte at least understood the language, it is possible she only served as a translator to French but not the other way around. ("Confirmed Dead") A more recent occurrence of character being present for translating is Lennon, an Other who was used by Dogen to translate his Japanese to Jack, Hurley, Jin and Kate, though he didn't translate English back to Dogen, who later revealed that he actually spoke the language though didn't like using it. ("LA X, Parts 1 & 2")

From Wookieepedia, the Star Wars wiki.

There were a number of languages throughout the galaxy, with Galactic Basic being the most common. It was not uncommon for beings to speak at least two languages in addition to their native tongue, particularly among those involved in space-faring occupations and those who had attended military or educational academies. For a comprehensive list of languages, see the category languages linked to at the bottom of the page.

Common languages

Galactic Basic, also known as Galactic Standard, was a constructed language, inspired largely by the languages of the various founding species of the Galactic Republic: the Humans, the Duros, and the Bothans. It was the lingua franca of the galaxy, and almost all Humans spoke it instead of their historical language.

Binary, or Droidspeak, was a language of beeps, trills, and whistles spoken primarily by astromech droids such as R2-D2. It was also spoken by other models of droid. Organic beings who spent a lot of time with droids could often pick up a basic understanding as well.

Shyriiwook was the main language of the Wookiees. It was considered to be the most emotive of Wookiee tongues, as opposed to the technical Thykarann or tribal Xaczik dialects. It could be understood by those who spoke Basic, however it was nearly impossible for non-Wookiees to pronounce.

The language of the extragalactic Yuuzhan Vong invaders was guttural and grammatically different from Basic, but otherwise straightforward.

Droids and computers

Droids and computers used either the natural languages that their masters used, usually Basic, or special machine languages. Protocol droids such as C-3PO were "fluent in over six million forms of communication" and were often employed as translators. Astromech droids such as R2-D2 were able to understand commands in Basic and perhaps other languages, but could only communicate through an information-dense language of beeps and whistles; although devices existed that could translate this language into Basic (such as the display in an X-wing cockpit that allowed the ship's astromech and pilot to commmunicate). Simpler droids communicated only through sounds indicating affirmative/negative, or other simple replies.

Behind the scenes

Language building

The languages of some fictional worlds have been worked out in great detail, with grammatical rules and large vocabularies, such as J. R. R. Tolkien's Elvish languages and the Klingon language of Star Trek. The Star Wars languages, in contrast, are not systematically worked out. The Wookiee growls and the beeps of the astromechs mainly carry emotional indicators for the audience via intonation, and Huttese is mainly a jumble of words taken from numerous real Human languages.

Other languages heard are longer chunks of actual Human languages, albeit ones likely unfamiliar to most of the audience. In A New Hope, for instance, the language spoken by the character Greedo in conversation with Han Solo (in the cantina) is actually a simplified version of Quechua, an indigenous language of the Andean region of South America. In Return of the Jedi, Lando Calrissian's copilot, Nien Nunb, speaks the real Human language Haya, a dialect spoken in Tanzania (page 31, Star Wars Insider 67). Similarly, the Ewok language was based on Kalmyk, although some fans claim that they also hear English being spoken by the Ewoks at some points during the film.

One can also hear some Finnish in the Phantom Menace. After the first lap of the pod race competition, Watto yells 'Kiitos!' ('Thank You!' in Finnish) to Sebulba, and Sebulba answers 'Ole hyvä!' ('You're Welcome!' in Finnish).

Despite these inconsistences however, a language guide to the most common Star Wars languages such as Huttese and Bocce exists: The Galactic Phrase Book and Travel Guide, which collects much of the data given in the books and movies surrounding the saga, forming some kind of official vocabulary, rules and phrases. Also covered in the book is Droidspeak, Ewokese, Gunganese, Jawaese, Neimoidian, Shyriiwook, Sullustan, and Tusken.

From Teletraan I: The Transformers Wiki

It should be little surprise, given a moment's thought, that distinct Cybertronian languages exist. The Transformers did not go about speaking English or any other known Earth language long ages ago on their distant metal world. Though the records of such conversations are frequently translated for us, we should not forget that these conversations originally evolved from dense code streams transmitted from one simple robot to another in the vacuum of Cybertron's surface and not primitive guttural monkey noises our own languages spawned from.

The Transformers cartoon

The first language used by the Transformers was likely the Quintesson language inherited from their former masters. It can be seen upon the walls of the Quintesson dimensional transporter room. It rather resembles Egyptian hieroglyphs — possibly a nod to "ancient astronaut" theories. Madman's Paradise

Ancient Autobot, on the other hand, eschewed pictures of birdies

Ancient Autobot was the language used by the ancient Autobot colonists that fled Cybertron in the distant past. This was the probable precursor to modern cybertronian dialects, Probably as hard to read as Latin or Sumerian even to most modern Transformers (or at least the Decepticons) could not read it. Cosmic Rust This is later referred to as the language of the Primes. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen

In contrast, the language used by the Autobots when they first awoke in 1984 was easily learned. Spike Witwicky learned to read Modern Autobot after only knowing the Transformers for a single day More Than Meets the Eye, Part 2

Beast Era

Robots in Disguise cartoon

Unicron Trilogy

Transformers (2007)

Even with subtitles, it's still hard to understand what he's saying.

Rather unique to this universe, several Transformers (notably Optimus Prime and Megatron) have Cybertronian words etched onto their heads, near the cheek area. What they say is anyone's guess. (One theory is that they are simple function tags like "heat exhaust, crush danger and data pathway")

The writing on the All Spark itself should be given special consideration. Since it is the precursor to all life on Cybertron it stands to reason the first alphabet and syntax for the whole race is encoded on its sides. The All Spark was covered in Cybertronian glyphs, leading Sector Seven to conclude a connection between the All Spark and Megatron. Additionally, cometary forms are covered in Cybertronian "tribal markings".[1]

The Decepticons communicate in Cybertronian (which to human ears sound like a collection of vowel-intensive electronic noises and rumbles... with the notable exception of Frenzy, who has a very staccato manner of speaking) when speaking among themselves on Earth, but have learned enough English to communicate with the humans when necessary. The crew members of the vessel Ghost 1 thought that one could make out words if they had a degree in theoretical physics — and were tripping on bad acid. Transformers: Ghosts of Yesterday

Cybertronian languages appear to contain a lot of information in small fragments.

Note:The written version of Cybertronian appears now and again throughout the film, most obviously during Decepticon dialogue, where the subtitles are displayed in Cybertronian briefly before translating to English.

It is also worth noting that this is the first time that Transformers are seen speaking their own language in any media.

Agoraptor post

There are also two versions of Cybertronian used in the AllSpark Wars Mini-ARG (Alternate Reality Game.) These are recycled versions of Ancient Autobot from "Cosmic Rust" and Decepticon from "Decepticon Graffiti!". They retconed a canonical order to both languages, based on fonts created by Jim Sorenson in the late 1990s. The Autobot Agoracer posted in Ancient Autobot, while the Decepticon Agoraptor posted in Decepticon. Both are available for download here under the names "Ancient Autobot" and "Decepticon Regular."

Doubtless Cybertronian split into two dialects due to the schism between Autobots and Decepticons. Autobot probably spoke in a poetic artisan dialect (e.g. Italian, French) and Decepticons used a terse militaristic form (e.g. German). Though both sides can understand each other and probably use similar base symbols (door, energon, alloy) higher terms are divided Autobot Glyphs include (hope, truth, defend) whereas Decepticon Glyphs used (murder, annihilate, pillage)

Autobot Characters

Decepticon Characters

Universe 2008 "Classic Series"

The packaging art for many of the "Classic Series" toys in the 2008 Universe line features movie-like "tribal markings" on the characters, going along with the more movie-like renditions of the characters.

More directly, the Legends-classCosmos toy is planned to have his name written on his vehicle mode in Cybertronian lettering.